Francis Taylor asked the Minister for Agriculture when the Land Commission will take possession of and divide the Patrick Tubridy estate, Kilcasheen, Moveen, County Clare.
Michael Pat Murphy: The property referred to has already vested in the Land Commission but efforts to obtain possession of the lands have not been successful. I understand that steps are now being taken to obtain a court order for possession under section 19, Land Act, 1927. At this stage, therefore, it is not possible to state when the lands will be divided.
Mr. Taylor: In view of the number of farmers concerned I would urge the Parliamentary Secretary to do everything possible to expedite this division. The farmers have been waiting for a long time.
Mr. M.P. Murphy: I assure the Deputy that that is the intention. The land was acquired in 1970 and the Land Commission feel it is time to finalise the matter.
to provide off road car parking, new pedestrian entrance and fencing to site boundaries with all associated site works
father used tell the yarn about when he [Thady Moloney (1875-1944)] was a young man, the ditch dividing the townlands of Kilcasheen and Moveen West was broken down and a gang of locals (including Thady) got together to build it up. He told how they were firing up shovel-fulls of human bones, skulls, etc., into the new ditch.
ST. SENAN then placed himself under Cassidanus, or Cassidus, a holy man who was a native of Kerricurrihy, between Cork harbour and Kinsale, but who appears to have resided then in Irros, before referred to, in the western part of Corca-Bhaiscin.
... standing in the ground are strong stones, in line, and too close together to be grave markers. On close examination we notice that they are the outline of the foundations of an old building, lying east-west ... what really are of interest are the strong stones standing in line. One can't but imagine that here, some time in the past, was a church or oratory. The northern and eastern walls were two feet thick, the southern wall more than that, but difficult to ascertain because of elder bushes and briars growing up through it. It is difficult to determine anything about a western wall because of a strong, large-stone-bearing ditch of comparatively recent construction. The width of the structure, internally, would have been 14' 3" (4.34m). A foundation measuring 35' 9" (10.89m) in length is discernible on the northern side ...
There is another burying ground called Killcasheen in the Townland of Killcasheen in this Parish. This was a deserted burying place in the year 1739 but in the ensuing year when famine and pestilence raged through the country and dead human bodies were to be met with by the roads and ditches, my grandfather, Melachlin-Garbh-O’Cómhraidhe, who tenanted, at will (being a Papist) the tract of land now called Moveen and in which Kilcasheen is situated, employed himself, his workmen, his horses and sledges in carrying the victims of the plague from all parts of the neighbouring district and burying them here, so that it has continued ever since to be a burial place, although not a popular one.
In 1739, the frost set in severely some days before Christmas, and totally destroyed all the potatoes that had been left in the ground. The frost was so great, and of so long continuance, that the people were not able to open the ground for the reception of the spring seed; and hence a great dearth of food, and a destructive mortality, ensued. My grandfather was at this time living at Moveen, near Kilkee, in the west of the County of Clare, and, with his brother, farmed 1,000 acres. When the famine and mortality were raging, in 1740 and 1741, his out-houses and barns were always full of the poor, and his constant business during these two seasons was to take care of those sick and dying creatures, and frequently to bury them himself, alone. The ordinary burial grounds were not capacious enough to receive the crowds that were dying around him; but there was a long unfrequented burying ground called Killcasheen, on his own lands, and about two miles from his own house. In this place he got his workmen to dig deep and long trenches, in which he buried all that died in his neighbourhood, covering them often with his own hands; for such was the terror of the stoutest men, that they fled from the presence of the dying and the dead; not only did he aid in burying those who died in his own neighbourhood, but he went with his horses and slide (a cart without wheels, of which I remember to have seen some specimens) all over the parish, taking the dead and often putrid bodies out of the deserted houses, and out of the ditches, and, heaping them on to his slide, like so many sacks of corn, brought them to his own burying ground, and there cast them in as best he could, without any assistance, and, of course, without coffins.
This graveyard is situated in a field about a hundred yards to the north of Moveen School and is now almost totally overgrown by grass, weeds and bushes and is frequently trampled over by cattle. It contains four flat tombstones and numerous upright, irregularly-shaped "flags", all without inscription. A patch in the centre, covered by rocks and bushes, is probably the section where Melachlin [O'Curry] interred the famine victims in 1740.
Committee Solicitor to liaise with Clare County Council at the point where the purchased land is to be transferred from the current owner with a view to transferring this land to the Council. It is understood your committee has been informed the purchased land cannot be transferred to the committee itself.
That the Municipal District review its decision on the graveyard at Kilcasheen, Kilkee.